Cub cadet zero turn mower blows fuse

[Moryaa122]

My cub cadet zero turn mower that’s around 15 years old, don’t know an exact model, just started blowing a fuse today. Got thru maybe 25% of my yard and the mower deck just stopped running. I’ve changed the fuse 4 times now and it keeps happening. Any advice how I can fix this at home? The little battery screen keeps flashing what looks like an hour glass and has the numbers 356.8 on it. Thanks

 

[Rivets]

Start by tracing every wire you can find three times. Sounds like you either have a frayed wire or bad connection shorting to go, due to unit vibration while cutting.

 

[StarTech]

With the mower being 15 yrs old one thing to check for is a partially shorted electric PTO clutch. Unplug the connect at the clutch and check the resistance. If below 1.7 ohms then you will need a new clutch.

 

[Honda Tech]

It sounds like you are melting fuses and not blowing them. If it is blowing the fuse instantly, you have a dead short somewhere. If melting, most likely your ground wire came loose. Locate, clean and tighten.

 

[keakar]

It sounds like you are melting fuses and not blowing them. If it is blowing the fuse instantly, you have a dead short somewhere. If melting, most likely your ground wire came loose. Locate, clean and tighten.

this ^^^^^^^

my dad fried his entire wiring harness when his craftsman had a rusty ground connection. he turned the key and all the power draw for the starter was pulling through a 16 gauge ground wire and melted the harness from the seat to the engine. the entire grounding circuit for all the safeties was fried as well, it was a right mess.

also something you can try before getting too deep into it is disconnect the main engine plug and see if that works. sometimes the alternator gets fried and thats your short but you cant tell since its out of sight under the flywheel. i had one cause me a lot of frustration because of that